do another seismic test that involves sophisticated sensing and vessels, and our scientific team is working on that. we want to know if we can detect any oil or methane gas coming up from the floor and escaping in advance of moving forward. having said all of that, we were producing part of the time yesterday and part of the time we were taking down the systems but in spite of all of that we produced 12,843 barrels from the q4000 and the helix producer, which was able to produce 7,680 barrels. we are very kpleezed. this is the first time a floating production unit happens been deployed in the gulf of mexico, and the helix producer is start up a of 24,000 barrels a day, higher than the other production platforms we ve had on scene to date. we will continue to do that. elsewhere in the area, the prevailing winds and weather are
production platforms off the new cap and that will allow us to shield the environment from a massive discharge of oil thus far. but the ability of the well to hold pressure whether it s low or high is very instructive on how we re going to penetrate the well and amount of mud and the weight of the mud in how it could vary and how they could plug that with cement. not so much of an impact on the relief well being drilled, as much as we could inform the way that we re actually going to conduct the kill itself because we will have imperical pressure readings and we ll understand to a greater certainty the condition of the wellbore. hang on, she may want to follow up on that. didn t look it was responsive from your nonverbals. i understand the well is blown, but this the entire key issue on all of this is controlling pressure from the reservoir. okay.
range of 60,000 barrels a day based on the new rate we developed years ago. they provided a plan to us. the capping stack that is on right now is actually part of the containment plan that we ordered them to provide. while we had the opportunity to potentially shut in the well, if the readings are correct, what this really does for us is give us four different outlets to go to four different production platforms and the capacity to us low us to cover 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day, which is above the maximum floor rate that we estimate right now. those are the two parts to that. operator, we can go ahead and take phone calls from line now. to answer a question on the phone lines, please, press star 1. you have a question from the associated press. thank you very much. admiral, can you give us a little idea right now from what you ve seen from this latest effort on whether this, did this cap is going to work as it s
any oil. having said all of that, we were producing part of the time yesterday and part of the time we were taking down the systems, but in spite of all of that we were still able to produce 12,843 barrels, a combination of what was flaired from the q-4000 which was a little over 5,000 barrels and the heliv producer. we were very pleased. the first time a floating unit was produced in the gulf of mexico. the rate that they re producing of 24,000 barrels a day, which is higher than the other production platforms we have seen to date. we will continue to do that. else where in the area, the prevailing winds and the weather are basically taking the oil that is coming to the surface to the southeast of the well site. we re getting a little break in the action as well as oil closing shore. that is allowing us to marshal
this. i think in the interests of the american people, safety of the environment and safety of this project moving forward was advisable to take a 24-hour break and make sure we were getting this absolutely right, understood the best way to deal with the unknown quantity which was the condition of the well bore and the casings moving forward and now we re prepared to do that. i m glad to take your questions. admiral, david mattingly from cnn. cow characterize you what think the odds are for success? you re obviously moving forward but how confident are you that this is going to work? as far as containment, i m very optimistic because we now have a have in place, regardless of whether we can shut in a well or not, we now have the cap in place that will allow us to go to four production platforms. now one of the problems will be we may not get a hundred percent containment but it will be much more than we have right now and we have capacity that is in excess of the flow rate. so th